Language teachers in the UK say that student exchange trips are under threat from increasingly tight child protection laws.

Foreign exchanges have been a feature of secondary school life for decades in the UK, with children travelling to France, Germany, Spain and beyond to spend a vacation experiencing foreign language, culture and family life first-hand.

An article in The Times (London) last month, however, highlighted concerns that stringent new laws were making such exchanges a thing of the past. In particular, the British Government has made criminal record checks mandatory for British parents looking after foreign children, something many parents are unwilling to undergo.

A teacher at Perse Girls School in Cambridge, England, said the rules were "madness," and lamented the "terrible loss" of exchanges, which teachers see as one of the best ways a child can learn a foreign language.

The private school was forced to cancel an exchange with students in Lille, France, this year. For the trip to go ahead, about 70 families would have had to be checked – something that was neither practical nor necessary. "In 15 years of exchanges, there have never been reports of any impropriety," a French language teacher told The Times.

Toughened child protection laws are not the only obstacle foreign language teaching has faced in British high schools recently.

There was also a setback in 2004, when foreign language classes were made no longer compulsory after the age of 14. The change contributed to already-dwindling numbers of students taking academic qualifications in languages.

A report by the British Academy in June this year identified "serious shortcomings and deficits" in the nation’s language skills, and concluded that the decline in language education undermined the Government’s attempt to position the UK "as a hub of international research."

01 November 2009